ARCADIA, Calif. - Elusive Bluff was scratched from Saturday's $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile due to a bruised right hind foot, trainer Eric Guillot said Thursday.

"He's going to be good in a week, he ain't going to be good on Saturday," Guillot said.

Elusive Bluff, a son of Elusive Quality, won his first two starts - both on turf at Belmont Park - including the Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes on Oct. 1. Though he had earned an automatic berth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf by virtue of his Pilgrim win, Elusive Bluff was entered in the Juvenile.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Indyanne was the fastest horse in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint scheduled for Friday, but the speedster will return home empty-handed after a minor illness knocked her out of the $1 million race in which she would have set the pace.

No one knows how far she would have lasted, but trainer Greg Gilchrist assured, "They were going to see her gray ass, I can tell you that; they were going to have to catch her."

ARCADIA, Calif. - Though there were only eight horses in the 2004 Breeders' Cup Juvenile, the right horses - and trainers - were in the race.

Roman Ruler, the best of the West trained by Bob Baffert, was the favorite. Proud Accolade, Afleet Alex, and Sun King - the top three finishers from the Grade 1 Champagne, trained by Todd Pletcher, Tim Ritchey, and Nick Zito, respectively, were also in the field. D. Wayne Lukas was represented by Lane's End Breeders' Futurity winner Consolidator. Even the dangerous Aidan O'Brien was in the race with the well-bred Scandinavia.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Each morning, the Graham Motion stable in Fair Hill, Md., revolves around the whims of Better Talk Now.

As the morning unfolds, Better Talk Now is walked for 30 minutes in the stable and then spends an hour relaxing in a paddock. Ideally, that is followed by racetrack exercise, but sometimes Better Talk Now has his own ideas. He can be impossible to coax out of the paddock sometimes.

Concerns about the faltering U.S. economy and the recent slide in wagering figures at most of the country's most high-profile racetracks have not had an impact, at least publicly, on the confidence of officials at the Breeders' Cup going into the organization's jam-packed event at Santa Anita Park in Southern California this weekend.

ARCADIA, Calif. - After being out of the Breeders’ Cup, and then back in, the prospects of Mast Track competing in the $1 million Dirt Mile on Saturday at Santa Anita looked bleak on Thursday morning.

"If he’s not 100 percent, I’m not going to run him," said Bobby Frankel, who trains and owns Mast Track. "And odds are he won’t be 100 percent."

ARCADIA, Calif. - An untimely fever is likely to prevent Indyanne from running Friday in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, trainer Greg Gilchrist confirmed Wednesday afternoon.

"She’s not officially out, but she is all but out," Gilchrist said.

A wickedly fast 3-year-old filly who won five of her six starts on the front end, Indyanne was expected to set the pace in the seven-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint. But after Indyanne shipped from Golden Gate Fields to Santa Anita on Tuesday, her condition deteriorated.

Marcus Hersh, Oct. 22:

ARCADIA, Calif. - With nearly all 164 horses entered for this year's Breeders' Cup on the grounds, there was plenty of action here Wednesday, highlighted by the first local appearances of Aidan O'Brien's powerful stable and leading Classic hopeful Go Between.

There will be more than one Asmussen participating in this year's Breeders' Cup. Steve is in the spotlight as the trainer of Curlin. In a much quieter role this week is his brother, Cash, a former five-time champion jockey in France. He is at Santa Anita with City Style, who will start in the $1 million Juvenile Turf for his wife, trainer Cheryl Asmussen.